Broviac removal

This last week has been a busy one.  The dressing on Daphne’s broviac needed to be changed daily, and would still need to be patched up in between with extra gauze when it would leak through. 

Wednesday we ended up taking Daphne to emergency because the broviac site started to bleed quite a bit.  Up until then it was always leaking clear/yellowish fluid.  The dressing was changed and we were sent home. 

Thursday was our clinic appointment with the transplant team.  We went to get blood work done first, but the broviac wouldn’t draw any blood.  It has two lumens on it and one wouldn’t even flush.  We went to our appointment anyway and were then sent to get a chest x-ray and then to get blood at the outpatient lab.  They did a very good job at the lab and only needed to poke Daphne once.  We went back to the clinic again and then we were told they would be admitting Daphne to remove her broviac.  With how much it was leaking infection was a risk, and now with it not working there was no reason to keep it. 

We kept Daphne NPO all day.  That means she was not allowed to eat or drink anything.  Hospital parents know very well the nightmare that is NPO.  Daphne actually handled it pretty well.  At around 4pm they told us just to feed her because it looked like they couldn’t fit her in.  She hadn’t eaten since 8am.  It was very disappointing that we had to starve her all day for nothing.  I have been very pleased with how well Daphne has been treated by everyone in the medical community except for the NPO situations.  It is often not planned well. 

The next day she was put on NPO again and she was able to go into surgery at 11:30am.  Right after surgery she of course was very hungry.  After I fed her she was happy and playful.  After that she did nap a lot.  The last two days were pretty exhausting for her.  While she was admitted she also got some albumin to treat her ascites. 

Today she had her dressing changed again and the site was leaking a lot less.  That was such a relief.  I am glad that the broviac site will have a chance to heal now.  The drawback is that weekly blood work will be much more stressful than it was before. 

The following are some pictures from this week.  Rowan and Daphne getting their faces painted just for fun, Daphne hanging out in the hospital and the last one is the birthday present Rowan had made for me while I was in the hospital with Daphne!